DufferLong strives to present portraits of life in its various forms through the camera lens. His photographs could be majestic landscapes, spectacular architectures, beautiful faces, enlarged macros, or just normal street photography.

Kisses

Week 11

As soon as Evelyn was born, our friends and relatives have asked mostly the same questions. The first 2 questions are normally about health, “How is the health of the baby and how is the health of the mommy?” The third question is not about health but has almost always been, “How does Hayden like the new baby and is he jealous?” I find that very interesting and have wanted to answer the third question with a photo ever since I started this 52 weeks photo project.

Even before Evelyn came into our lives, Hayden was already expecting and had known about his sister’s impending arrival; he learned about the miracle of birth via an episode of Pingu, one of Hayden’s favorite claymation characters. Hayden now includes Evelyn in everything. He used to refer to our home as daddy’s home, mommy’s home, and Hayden’s home; but now, he also said it’s Evelyn’s home. He wants to make sure Evelyn is also going with us if we are getting ready to go anywhere. If Evelyn cries; he alerts us so that we can tend to the baby’s needs; and most of all, he loves to hug, hold, and kiss his sister.

In a past posting, I have talked about parental instincts and the unknown force that makes us love our children, but what about sibling instincts? How is it that a 3-year-old boy who does not know how to share anything knows to love his sister and is willing to share everything with another competing child including his most sacred possession – his parents’ time? Time will tell if sibling instinct holds for Hayden and Evelyn, especially when Evelyn is old enough to compete for Hayden’s toys, but right now the answer is very clear: Hayden loves his sister.

We had visitors this past weekend; Evelyn’s grandma, Evelyn’s aunt, and Evelyn’s 9-year-old cousin visited from New Jersey. As we rarely get visits from relations, to mark the occasion, I wanted to include Evelyn’s young cousin in this week’s photo; but then I also did not want to delay answering the question about Hayden and his sister Evelyn any longer; and that is how this photo comes about.

PS: I forgot to document it but in week 9, Evelyn was able to watch TV (or at least noticed the changes on the TV screen). She comes very close to rolling over onto her tummy – next week perhaps? Evelyn would like to thank cousin Kiều Tiên and big brother Hayden for their help modeling and cô HuynhNga for the photo idea.